Alas dear readers, day three in the Dad/daughter vacation time at Mowich Lake. After our long day of off trail for Echo and Observation, we of course slept in until 9 am, had breakfast bagels, and now packed day packs to return to Spray Park and tag Hessong Rock and Mt Pleasant on yet another beautiful day. To be honest we were tiring a bit of the trail to Spray Park, this being our third time on it. But soon enough we entered the lower meadows of Spray Park and could see our destinations, Hessong Rock and Mt Pleasant. The informal trail to the saddle that leads to both summits was easily visible as we neared. I had climbed this a couple of years ago hiking with a buddy of mine and was impressed by the wide open views from the saddle, and today was no exception. All of Spray Park lay before us, with previous destinations Echo and Observation in the distance. I have a nice 8-18 Leica wide angle lens for my G9 and it still didn't do this massive view justice. But wait, there's more! Cassie and I set off on the back side of Hessong to attain the summit, and once on top were blown away by an EVEN MORE MASSIVE view! Gotta be one of the best spots in the entire park, with unobstructed sight lines in all directions. We could have spent a few hours up there, maybe succumbing to occular overload, but eventually we pried ourselves off the summit and returned to the saddle with Mt Pleasant in sight. An easy stroll led us to this summit, almost as good as Hessong....I'd give it a 9.6 vice a Hessong 10. As we were lounging there it became obvious we could descend to the Knapsack pass trail vice heading back the way we came. An easy ridge/meadow scramble deposited us on this trail so we could make a loop. Nice! we lingered more in this area then made our way towards the pass. I screwed up in finding the transition to the "trail" out of Knapsack Pass, climbing too high. Luckily I serve as Cassie's pathfinder and she stayed low until I found the correct entry point, avoiding the sliding crud I had to cross to get on track. Nasty stuff, and rather dumb of me. But once on the trail the rest of the day going over Knapsack and down the lonely and pleasant trail had us dipping our feet in an idyllic creek and picking blueberries for an afternoon snack as we were in no hurry. We contemplated going out to Tolmie and tagging Tolmie Peak and Howard that evening, but what's the rush? Plenty of time to hang out by the lake after dinner and once again try to stay up until dark, and once again having trouble doing that. TBC
Lower Spray Park
Approaching our goals, Hessong Rock left Pleasant Mtn right
This is a FUN loop! We hiked this a few years back and loved that the trail kept going. That ridge is part of a cool cirque. Beautiful pictures and weather!!
Nice! I did the reverse loop including Fay with a nephew from back east some years back. Unfortunately, we did not have the weather you did but still enjoyed the traverse over Pleasant. It's great you can do this with your daughter.
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